Terms and conditions for the use of ANSTO facilities

1. Conducting the experiment

Before coming on site, external researchers using ANSTO facilities will have informed their employer about their working at a nuclear installation, and that they may be exposed to ionising radiation. On arrival, they must complete the obligatory safety training and respect all applicable ANSTO regulations.

Each user will be required to sign an agreement accordingly (see below for details). The proposers will have obtained authorisation by their respective employer to carry out experiments at ANSTO.

Experimental samples and conditions must be as quoted in the proposal. The proposal should provide details on all the samples that the researchers intend to put in the neutron beam (after approval the sample section of the proposal can be updated).

Essentially, each and every sample needs to have a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS); ANSTO offers support in establishing an MSDS for new samples (this will take 6-8 weeks). Removal of samples after the experiment will depend on possible irradiation during the experiment and the indications on sample treatment given in the proposal.

Researchers using the ANSTO facilities must ensure that they are insured against the risk of illness, surgical expenses and industrial accidents. Researchers with pace-makers must consult ANSTO's medical service before going into certain areas such as the OPAL neutron-guide or reactor hall.

2. Data archiving and data access

We will provide long-term storage and archiving of the data taken on ANSTO instruments. Key factors are:

A high-quality 3 year archive for raw data taken under all non-proprietary proposals.

A belief that the scientific world is heading towards more open-access to raw data taken at publicly funded research facilities (e.g. telescopes, the Human Genome Project, etc.)

A need to show a clear and transparent return on investment to the Australian Government, for its capital and operational investment in OPAL and its instruments.

The desire to protect scientific priority for our users (especially PhD students), for a reasonable period.

These considerations only apply to non-proprietary research at OPAL, with the following definitions of proprietary and non-proprietary research.

Non-proprietary Work Scientific peer-review of proposal (including safety review): raw data will be deposited in a public-access archive after 3 years, unless requested to do otherwise by Principal Investigator of proposed experiment

Proprietary Work Fee-for-service and 100% ownership of data: safety review of proposed work

3. Acknowledgement when publishing results

The results of non-proprietary research are not confidential and should be published giving proper credit to ANSTO members and proper mention of the ANSTO facilities. Depending on the collaboration between external researchers and our staff we expect co-authorship on any resulting publications.

It is recommended to discuss co-authorship before the experiment. Publications that do not explicitly have a Bragg Institute co-author are expected to include the following acknowledgment:

"We acknowledge the support of the ANSTO, in providing the [facility/capability/expertise] used in this work".

Some non-proprietary research may be "service" work, in the sense that there will be minimal support from our staff. In general, the proposers should man the experiment fully and perform all data reduction and analysis themselves. In this case, all publications should still acknowledge ANSTO, as above, for making the facility/capability/expertise available.

For the first year that any given instrument operates in user mode, we would also expect that the ANSTO instrument scientists would be a co-author, even on "service" proposals, in recognition of their efforts in constructing and commissioning the instrument itself.